The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-03

HE MAKES A GOOD CITIZEN OF
THE METROPOLIS.

His Wife Also Advances in the Knowl-
edge and Practice of Society's Rules
Neat and Pretty Colored Children
Whose Parents Are Weu-To-Do.
NEW YORK, July 2.--The time has come
in New York when you cannot tell whether
q woman is a negroes or not without having
agood look at her face Only few years
ago one could pick out the song and dance
walk, the easy gait, the careless carriage
and athletic figure of a daughter of Africa
from almost any distance. Her great
ambition seemed to be to combine all the
colors of the rainbow in one bewildering
and devastating combination. Yellow skirts,
green waists, red neckerchiefs, bronze
shoes and the other cardinal colors dis
tributed through wraps, parasols and
bOnnetS, were to be seen at one and the same
time as they were conveyed along the street
by figures that may have been more or less
graceful but were never distinctly fashiona-
BILE. Except in the new arrivals from the
far South, this gaudness has entirely disap-
peared. Colored women now dress in dark
colors or in deep grays, the object being
apparently to make the contrast between
the clothes and the skin of the wearer as
inconspicuous as possible. Very few
New Yorkers-to say nothing of
the outside public-have any idea
of the substantial advancement which
the colored race has made in this
city within the past few years. Many
colored men hold positions that are lucrative
and honorable to high degree Not a few
are valuable clerks and trusted messengers
in banks and big commercial houses. The
solid men of the race are those who have
built up various business interests of their
own.
know of a man who ran an elevator in
a bachelors apartment house, on upper
Fifth avenue, ten years ago, at monthly
salary of $50. There was no restaurant in
the house, and the elevator man began to
furnish breakfast to one or two of the men
who occupied suites of rooms where he
worked. He had Just married a comedy
young woman who had been well educated
as a cook in a private family. Within q
year after he had started in this enterprise
he was serving sixteen or eighteen break
fasts every morning at 75c. apiece He
moved into the neighborhood, got up at 4
O'Clock in the morning so as to select his
own steaks and chops at the market, and
extended bis clientage to another big apart
ment house across the way. He built up
catering business which has steadily grown
ever since. There is no doubt that he clears
$1,000 or $4,000 year above all expenses.
He is quite respectful in demeanor, has
correct business methods, and lives as well
as most millionaires He has quite a little
house on West Twenty seventh street,
where he and his wife and children reside;
there are three servants, and he has reduced
his business hours from o'clock in the
morning until 5 o'clock in the afternoon.
His clothes are made by fashionable tailors,
and he is in every way a counterpart of the
average successful business man, except that
his skin is black. His word is as good as
his bond, and his bond is worth 100 cents on
the dollar
. Colored mel arc beginning to think out
the problems of their race, and any man
who will talk for half an hour with such
leaders of their people as Thomas Fortune
or Consul Williams will have new ideas of
the capabilities of the men who have sprung
from a race of slaves. New York seldom
gees the nRprn eYcent in his working clothes